


Out of Chaos

by Aaskada



Series: a string of barely coherent vignettes [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: (author does not know when those two will even talk to each other), Anakin Being Dumb, Anakin is slowly getting his shit together in the background, Does it count as a Service Corps AU if everyone becomes Service Corps, M/M, Sith plots backfire in wildly outrageous ways, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:15:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 15,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27533623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaskada/pseuds/Aaskada
Summary: Rather than making the Jedi generals, the Senate votes to see them exiled after the Battle of Geonosis. It takes some time, but the Jedi and Republic both find that the Jedi got the better end of that deal.
Relationships: Jango Fett/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Series: a string of barely coherent vignettes [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1987279
Comments: 359
Kudos: 1669
Collections: the peasant's guide to fine reading





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Once again we can thank discord for this

It didn't take long after Geonosis for senators to start blaming the Jedi for the opening moves of outright war. Their own casualties kept them distracted just long enough that by the time they realized how serious those whispers had gotten they were being informed that any Jedi found on a Republic world after two standard months would be arrested.

Notice was sent immediately to all outposts and knights in the field with orders to prepare to leave their posts. Even the Altisians were warned that the Senate may not respect their independence in this matter. The archives and stores were packed within three weeks while the high council, half of whom were newly appointed, debated safe worlds that could take such and influx.

Tython would mean braving the gravity wells, but there were already extant temples that just needed repair. It was also sovereign Jedi territory by the Senate's own decree. That would trap them in the deep core, though, in the middle of Republic space.

The other option was Ilum, or rather it's sister planet Ilaii. They would be near to the crystal caves, but the planet had seen no inhabitants. They would need to build shelter as well as secure food production and do a more thorough survey of the surface.

In the end it was two facts that decided their new home: Ilaii was farther from the nearest Hyperlane than Tython and, while every Jedi made a trip to Ilum as an initiate, Dooku had shown interest in the abandoned temples of Tython while he never returned to the frozen temple or the crystal caves beneath it. Out in the unknown regions with no neighbors, Ilaii and Ilum would be hard to find without coordinates and wouldn't have the anomalies of the deep core.

Half of the time until their deadline is already past when the orders go out to head toward Ila, knights and masters in the field were either returning or requesting their quarters be packed by the quartermasters' droids. With one standard month left the first ships finally leave Coruscant, Corellia, and Telos. The smaller temples with fewer inhabitants settle the last of their business and wait. The archives are escorted by the shadows and the creche by the temple guard. Medical equipment is divided between all the travel groups each escorted by a team of medics.

With Obi-Wan now being a councilor he'll be on the last ship leaving Coruscant while Anakin is going ahead with the other senior padawans. Anakin is handling this with as much grace as he handles everything he doesn't care for. That is to say, none at all. After so much shouting and blame Obi-Wan can't help but feel relieved both that circumstances have delayed discussion of Anakin's possible knighting among the council and some time away from his padawan. The Senate is exhausting enough without the strange ideas Anakin has gotten into his head about what kind of influence the Jedi have in the Republic.

The Jedi have very little influence, is the reality, and none at all that could have saved them from the exile order. In all ways but representation they are a sovereign member, and in that they are merely a governmental department. Obi-Wan has no idea how Anakin has come to the belief that they have some sort of institutional influence when they don't even have the right to be heard more than any private citizen if they petition the Senate. Obi-Wan isn't sure how to tell him that Senate votes and legislation are viewable by the public and Chancellor Palpatine signed off on the order with very little argument.

The clone survivors of the Battle of Geonosis, as it is now known, return to Kamino and their brethren. Jango Fett is in the stars, having taken his son and fought his way back to his ship when the droids appeared. And the temple is echoing with emptiness as only a handful remain. The doors on the surface near the senate dome have been closed for weeks. They're too heavy to open without the Force and contain no mechanics to ease the process. The locks are an entirely internal set of cortosis pistons that require extensive practice to move at all let alone in the correct order. Farther down the levels of Coruscant the doors used by the MediCorps clinic workers are still open, but most others have also been sealed and blended into the temple wall from the outside. When the council leaves with the corps members on Coruscant all these remaining doors will close along with the hangar bay and the temple will be sealed behind them and the blast gates lowered.

In another week the temple will be left sealed and dark.

With most of the temple already sealed off and shut down there is cold creeping into the corridors. Obi-Wan keeps a pair of space heaters at night since the whole heating system is mostly offline. The atmospheric conversion chamber at the door of Plo Koon's rooms were one of the few special systems still online otherwise those remaining are making do.

On the holonews, the Senate is triumphant. The Jedi are leaving and in only a few days more they will be gone for good! Watching is exhausting, but there are also smaller stories buried under the avalanche: the Jedi saved our planet, the Jedi feed our people, what will we do without the Jedi? These stories only serve to make him sadder knowing that those who rely on the services of the Order will be left with no aid, but he's seen what can go wrong when the Order attempts to defy the Senate even in small ways. No one will take Jedi help in the Republic until they've lived for a time in a galaxy without Jedi and they'll receive nothing but condemnation for trying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For reference: both Ilum and Ilaii are planets in the system **Ila**. This system and most of its planets are made up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bunny is l i v i n g right now.

The council all deliberately agrees to stay away from the holonet on the trip to Ila. Once they take the Metellos Trade Route down to Galantos it's a straight jump to Ila off the hyperlanes, but still a four day trip, five altogether, and beyond that there are no holonet beacons out in Unknown Space or near it capable of reaching the system. It's a full two days in hyperspace to Ansion and its nearby systems where they can connect. At this point they have so little ability to act that it is largely for their own well-being that they stay offline in the short gap between entering normal space at Galantos and leaving it again.

The last remnants of the Order calculates their routes and departure dates to be leaving Republic space altogether just as the two month deadline hits, leaving them the most time to help as many as they could without violating the terms of their exile.

Finally the last day came. During the day those in the temple packed the last of their belongings onto the ships with help from the droids and when the Corps members returned at evening they all boarded and took off into orbit. Their first jump began and everyone plans their next day around whether they intend to be awake for the second jump's start. The council all would be, so Obi-Wan finds the bunkroom he is sharing with Mace for the foreseeable future and they settle into joint meditation.

The force is full with the overflowing emotions of the galactic core's densely populated worlds. It's overwhelming and heartbreaking to reach out and feel how many are celebrating that the Jedi are gone. At the same time, beneath that the unifying force is lit with hints of future grief yet still the path ahead seems lighter. Even if it feels like abandonment of duty to say so he feels a better future ahead of the Jedi should they turn away from the Republic entirely. Mace is unreadable on the outside, but in the force he is in just as much turmoil.

"A great shatterpoint passed when the Jedi were exiled," Mace says eventually.

"The future ahead of us is lighter. War is a dark thing, that which we are leaving our charges to."

"They aren't ours anymore and that is their own choosing."

He nods. Even if he feels it will tear him apart Obi-Wan has learned to respect others' choices. The Order will live in unknown space well past the boarders of the Republic safe from the oncoming storm and the Republic will have to weather their own politics without help for the first time in centuries. Millennia, probably.

For once meditation left them with more to settle and so it's a few more hours of mindless activities before either finds sleep. It's a restless sleep. Over the course of the five day trip the day cycle on their ships will cycle toward matching that of Ilaii rather than Coruscant, as is Republic standard. Seeing as the day cycle the Senate lives by will no longer matter to them it will be relegated to the realms of the archivists and those few who have reason to leave Ila, same as the Republic standard calendar. Adjusting leaves Obi-Wan feeling tired for the whole trip, but with aid from the force he is mostly prepared to be functional during the day once they arrive.

None of them have been to Ilaii before, despite the fact that multiple trips to Ilum in its matching orbit further from Asar are not uncommon as one grows and refines their lightsaber. The planet, though listed as one of three inhabitable in the system, had never before been needed as a home same as the temple on Ilum had long been a place of pilgrimage rather than habitation for the Order. It was evening over the continent where their new home would be: to the right side glittering sand turned iridescent in the fading light while the hills covered in black grass glinted with hints of sand only to fade into inky darkness toward the middle of the continent. Farther beyond bits of light began to appear as the grasslands approached the towering forest that was their destination. In the shadows of the dark plant-life native to Ilaii bioluminescence peered back at them from plants and animals alike. The Illaian Sands, the Star Fields, and the Gloamwood; as their communication from the ground informed them. Off the coast the glowing red of molten rock cast light on volcanic glass. The ExploraCorps member giving directions was much more circumspect about this, not giving the volcano's name as with the continent's other obvious features.

The forest has few good places for large ships to land that were easily accessible without more work and most of the Order is currently sleeping aboard them while living quarters are under construction. The dense canopy of the enormous trees is dangerous to navigate in the dark, let alone into the deep sinkhole with only generator-powered spotlights and the force to lead the way. This particular sinkhole has no large or dangerous inhabitants, they are assured.

The landing goes well and the council goes out to meet the Service Corps representatives who have been chosen to debrief them on the progress of ensuring their stay is indefinitely sustainable. Several of the larger ships have already been cannibalized for parts, the barges and transports being unnecessary for the foreseeable future as long as everyone shares space a bit closer than before. All of ExploraCorps' focus, once a preliminary map of the surface was complete, has gone toward mapping the forest and its caves for suitable building locations. AgriCorps reports that quite a bit of the local flora and fauna is edible, enough that careful gathering and cultivation will see them through the months of settlement with food and textiles. According to EduCorps the archives are still secured on their transport without a new home, but classes have resumed for all age groups. The final report is from MediCorps: a triage and clinic space is functioning on one of their smaller mobile clinic stations MediCorps teams frequently operate out of, and testing of local allergens and pathogens on another—so far nothing concerning has been found. The Order's knights and masters have for the most part been pressed into service by one Corps or another. Perhaps this co-mingling will lead some to find their purpose in one of these Corps, now that the paths followed by knighthood are mostly closed to them.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anakin Is Dumb™

A month into sorting out their new home the creche is built and a space is being retrofitted with a cannibalized ship's climate control system for the new archives. Other living spaces are idly underway along with a proper mess hall and shared kitchen while the entirety of the Order is living in closer quarters than ever before. Experiments with local plant fibers are going well. The trees are exceptionally fibrous and large enough that a single branch can be spun into several spools of black thread. The glowing veins on the large, leafy fronds as large as a Wookie is tall make a thread that glows the same pale blue and purple colors as much of the plant-life in the Gloamwood. They're everywhere, growing on the ground and still-living trees alike.

Anakin has been difficult the entire month. While Obi-Wan doesn't disagree that their exile is unfair, Anakin's insistence that this means they should just go back to Republic space where they are legally forbidden from going has the council agreeing unanimously that Anakin isn't ready for knighthood yet. ExploraCorps has availed themselves of Anakin's services for mapping the sprawling system of caves they've moved into and Obi-Wan just nods thankfully at the Corps member who notifies him his padawan is being given something more constructive to do than complain. Plo has also taken on ExploraCorps duties and promises to keep him out of trouble.

Distracted as he is with his own Corps provided duties teaching and helping with construction—beyond his usual council-related coordination duties—Obi-Wan can't dredge up the energy to be anything more than disappointed when Plo drags Anakin before the council to inform them he had stolen an aethersprite and attempted to escape back to Republic space before Plo caught up with one of their few ships with a tractor beam—the same ships, in fact, that were used by MediCorps to tow their mobile clinics from planet to planet. It's several days to Republic space even in hyperspace and Anakin didn't even take a set of docking rings. He hasn't the slightest idea how Anakin thought he would get anywhere on a ship with no hyperdrive out in unknown space. The astrodroid he took with him is the one who notified Plo when Anakin set his course. A blue and white droid Obi-Wan is fairly certain is property of Senator Amidala.

Since Anakin clearly can't be trusted to help with the mapping process, he is sent to the Quartermasters instead.

Progress moves forward in all quarters. After two more months enough living quarters have been carved out and furnished for more of their large transports to be cannibalized. At this point Anakin is dragged before the council yet again, this time for having taken advantage use the ship's systems to boost a comm signal off his personal comm high enough to send a message halfway to Coruscant. Mace confiscates his comm even after the engineer who caught him informed the council said message was comprised entirely of incoherent sobbing. They are also far enough from any neighbors that it will be all but impossible for the message to be traced back to the true location of Ila, let alone to Ilaii specifically.

The whole ordeal makes Obi-Wan wonder why Anakin never left the Order if he found it so objectionable. While he was younger it wasn't surprising he would ultimately choose guaranteed food and shelter, but for more than a year now Anakin has been legally an adult by Republic laws governing ages of adulthood. He is old enough now not to require the Order's, or Obi-Wan's, permission as his guardian for most anything. Yet again Anakin is reassigned. Back to ExploraCorps, but specifically mapping the tunnels with a droid where he can't make much more trouble.

It seems this new assignment gets the job done keeping Anakin out of trouble, if not keeping him content. There is little to be done about Anakin's unhappiness, though. He refuses to hand in his saber and stop calling himself a Jedi, but also to accept that being a Jedi now means he cannot be a citizen of the Republic as well. Not having to worry about what he'll try next means a great many people are more relaxed and more productive.

The tunnels are far from rough-hewn now. While most of the entrances to the system they find are being blocked or kept small to keep out the native megafauna, those that ExploraCorps have identified as good locations are being carved with elaborate reliefs and decorated. A mixed group of Corps and knights have dedicated large portions of their free time to working their new fibers into all manner of textiles both for decoration and warmth in the caves. Central to the chosen living quarters there is a series of extensive hot springs keeping the surrounding chambers warm and, in some cases, humid. While many of the springs are too hot for bathing in for the vast majority of the Order, a particularly large one also has a cold waterfall coming from some source they haven't tracked yet. It isn't the Room of a Thousand Fountains, but it certainly gets the job done and everyone is thrilled.

The most interesting thing about the deeper caves are the glowing crystals growing out of the walls. Mostly likely they are the mineral responsible for the bioluminescence of the forest above and there are veins running throughout the caves. The springs in particular are lined with them along with minerals in the water making the pools glow. Their exact composition is still unknown, but it does seem those crystals might make decent saber crystals beyond their utility in making the halls of their new temple glow. Anakin's fumbling around in the tunnels is resulting in the discovery of a great many resources that will be useful in their new home. Obi-Wan speculates the force is leading him, if not to what he wants.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I go, inflicting hovertext Mando'a on myself in another story

This is not according to plan! The Jedi should have been generals of the army, whittling down their empathy and numbers both, but instead due to the idiots in the Senate they are gone and no one knows where! He carefully implied to Skywalker there would be no consequences if he re-entered Republic space despite the exile, but so far that has come to nothing as well. His spies tell him there was a message from the brat somewhere on the outer rim, but the message is too corrupted to understand and the origin untraceable. And now! Now those stupid eel-necked Kaminoans refuse to give him the army he paid for because he wasn't a Jedi! The damn Jedi had claimed the army already and taken them to Geonosis. That they sent them back shouldn't matter!

Nonetheless, here they are. The war should have begun, but without an army the Republic can't fight and the Separatists are straining their leash to attack as they'd been promised. Instead three months have passed and not only have the clones been kept away from him, a statement is released from Tipoca City that, as the army was commissioned for the Jedi, the clones would not be released to anyone else. Careful deflection is turning sentiments in the Senate toward the Jedi having cruelly abandoned them in their time of need and as a result in the news as well. In the areas where the disappearance of the Jedi most quickly made a difference his spies report derision for the Senate is rising. On Coruscant they don't matter—the lower levels are barely worth considering—but on other planets.... Should public opinion swing to far against the Senate there will be too many world joining the Separatists. This plan has been going perfectly for centuries and now the damn Senate ruins it when the Republic should be under this heel. Without the war, the Emergency Powers Act would never pass and he will find himself out of the chancellor's office.

Unacceptable.

Kote wasn't on the ground at Geonosis. Like most of the commanders his presence was deemed unnecessary when the tiny, green Jedi requests a battalion to rescue those captured by the Separatists and had to wait until the battalion returned for news. They receive grim news: of all the Jedi at Geonosis, few survived. Then, not long after, news comes from the Republic that the Jedi have been exiled "for their responsibility in the hostilities that have lead the Republic to war." It's a bunch of osik and even Prime scowls at the holo-broadcast. Several of the Cuy'val Dar have left—the ten years having been the end of their contract—and few of them are sad to see the last of Priest and Reau, but those who call themselves Haat'ade remain. The cadets get more training, as do everyone with everyone waiting to find out what will happen to them. Then the Kaminiise announce to the galaxy that the vode were commissioned for the Jedi and won't be given to anyone else.

On one hand they have been told their whole lives that they will serve the Republic, that it is a government deserving of their loyalty—even if the Cuy'val Dar clearly didn't agree with that message—on the other hand they are made for the Jedi. Clearly the Kaminiise believe they belong to the Jedi rather than the Republic so after the commanders and the alphas debate Kote is volunteered to bring a suggestion to the cloners.

If the Jedi won't come to the clones, the clones will go to the Jedi.

Jango isn't quite sure where he lost control of his life. At Korda 6, after Galidraan, when Dooku revealed himself on Kohlma and used his magic tricks to get in his head. Taking advantage of the chaos on Geonosis to take Boba and leave before Dooku could get another chance almost didn't occur to him, then a shot from one of the battle droids got too close to his ad's head and his mind cleared. Grabbing Boba and getting out is the only thing that mattered. In the chaos of the fight he only hoped Dooku would be killed, but reports said the demagolka made it out unscathed. Unfortunately.

Not ideal, but if whatever is going on can get his people out of the mess that hutuunyc dar'jetii made him drag them into he'll consider any grudge with the Jetiise settled. 

Then he picks up a strange comm on Slave 1 while out near Ansion with Boba. It's definitely the padawan from the arena on Geonosis, but he isn't saying anything coherent and that's only partially down to the data corruption. Jango isn't interested, but Boba wants to try his hand at tracing the signal so Jango leaves him to it. The improvised signal booster is inspired for an adiik. At some point he thinks Boba actually makes contact with someone a few weeks later but he quickly decides he currently doesn't want to know anything about that. Whoever Boba has taken up sending messages to, they only manage actual calls in Wild Space out past Ansion. That probably means the Jetiise are out in the unknown reaches beyond, but no one is paying Jango for information about them and no amount of credits is worth getting lost in the unknown regions looking.

The vode—as they call themselves when the long necks and Kyr'tsad can't hear—are planning something. The war meeting they hold isn't subtle, but it doesn't need to be when Kote goes to Taun We and Lama Su about whatever they decided. That meeting goes on much longer. In the end Kote emerges victorious to report back to his brothers. Jango starts to think about jobs that the Haat'ade could take without getting involved with the Republic or the Separatists. If those jobs should happen to take him near Ansion frequently, well, Boba would be happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Osik = n., shit  
> Cuy'val Dar = n., lit. Those Who No Longer Exist; the Mandalorians who disappeared to Kamino to train the clones  
> Haat'ade = n., True Mandalorians  
> Kaminii = n., Kaminoan, pl. Kaminiise  
> Vod = n., sibling, pl. vode  
> Demagolka = n., monster; war criminal, especially one who commits crimes against children; derived from Demagol, an old Mandalorian scientist who experimented on children  
> Hutuunyc dar'jetii = n., cowardly Sith (dar'jetii = lit. no longer a Jedi)  
> Jetii = n., Jedi, pl. Jetiise  
> Adiik = n., child between 3 and 13 years  
> Kyr'tsad = n., Death Watch  
>   
> I am a huge fan of Cody's name actually being Kote


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gremlins

Two and a half months after having his comm confiscated Anakin is called before the council again and Obi-Wan almost despairs. Except Anakin is as clueless as he is and Anakin has never been a good liar. In the middle of their temporary conference room on one of their remaining large transports he sees Anakin's comm plugged into the communications console and despairs. They hoped the distance and quick stop the quartermasters put to Anakin's broadcast would stop anyone from being able to trace it back to their location. If this meeting was about the comm, they haven't been so lucky after all.

"Skywalker. I'm sure you want to tell me you have no idea why you could possibly be here," Mace says.

Obi-Wan narrows his eyes at his fellow councilor. He like to think they've become good friends since his abrupt knighting a decade earlier and, while Anakin misses it, there is a definite edge of amusement to Mace's mannerisms. A few places over Kit is trying not to laugh. The pair of them are the only ones fully aware of what is happening, the rest of the council looks faintly bewildered as he feels. With Anakin's comm they all assumed the worst, but perhaps they are lucky indeed.

Anakin shakes his head sullenly at Mace's question. Obi-Wan isn't surprised his padawan is paying too little attention to notice his own confiscated comm in the middle of the room. Much as he would like Anakin to shape up and either prove them wrong that he is prepared for knighthood or hand in his saber and return to the Republic it becomes clearer every day that he won't be getting an early knighting. By the way he's going, it may end up being a long one.

"The message you sent, compromising our location, has received a response."

Anakin perks up, but by the hilarity that's starting to leak into the force the return message hasn't come from the person he's hoping for. Obi-Wan isn't surprised, with no nearby holonet beacons the message signal would have been near impossible to repair before hitting any worlds on Republic starmaps. There are few people outside the Jedi Anakin might be hoping to hear from and neither the Chancellor nor Senator Amidala are close enough to have received a signal they could send a message back to. As if it is scheduled, the comm takes that moment to light up with an incoming message. All their eyes turn to the projector. Mace checks that the message has fully arrived before playing it for everyone. Anakin goes momentarily panicked at everyone seeing the message, then confused when he sees who pops up. Obi-Wan isn't surprised—he wouldn't have guessed this particular correspondent and he's the one who knows the boy.

Projected by the communications systems, Boba Fett is vibrating with glee and Obi-Wan is instantly wary of that. Then the boy opens his mouth and he's scandalized instead that Jango Fett let his eight year old son learn such language. It's Mando'a, making him the only person in the room to understand what is being said, but when his fellow councilors turn to him he just shakes his head.

"I am absolutely not translating that."

The scandalized _"Boba!"_ in the recording suggests Fett hadn't previously been aware of his son's vocabulary. That is not, however, a problem for the council. Anakin's indiscretions, on the other hand, are. The council goes serious again.

"Skywalker, if you want to be in the Republic so badly you are free to turn in your saber and stop being a Jedi. Until you decide which you want you are a threat to the safety of the Order. I suggest you get over your tantrum and make a choice." Mace raises a hand to cut off Anakin before he says anything. "We don't need an answer immediately, but I suggest you start thinking about it."

Anakin's expression is mulish, as he learned to be about his faults. He has never taken criticism well—there were often undercurrents of resentment and envy from his agemates and a wariness from the knights and masters that he always assumes are the result of the same. Another conclusion Obi-Wan can't quite wrap his head around. Anakin's ongoing issues with anger, possessiveness, and violence were far from subtle early in his apprenticeship; that many Jedi would be wary of the way he broadcasted those things until they could overwhelm those around him was a matter of much concern, but any attempts to speak to him about it only ever resulted in hostility. After a time Anakin calmed down and until now Obi-Wan thought he had grown out of the worst of it. It seems this is far from the case. His padawan is escorted back to his duties by the R2 unit and a Corps member as has become standard practice.

"Boba Fett, is it?" he asks Mace. "An interesting comm friend."

"He certainly entertains," Kit answers instead. "Even if we rarely know what he's saying."

"Nothing polite, but I'm sure you didn't need me to tell you that."

"No, that was clear enough," Shaak snorts. "Now, how are the halls coming? The new tapestries have stopped the worst of the echo."

They discuss the building for the rest of their impromptu meeting. The veins of crystal have been worked into the decorations, with tiny carvings at the edges resulting in shadows of all sorts of scenes thrown up on the wall. It's very well done work and as popular with the younglings as the plush toys made of faintly glowing fabric with crystal eyes. More familiar animals are popular, but there is an increasing number of dolls modeled after the local wildlife to see around the creche. The enormous shelled reptiles are becoming especially common among those who've never had the experience of escaping their sharp beaks. The younglings are also the first to get new clothes as they continue to grow out of what the crechemasters have on hand to give them. If nothing else it makes mischievous younglings easier to find before they sneak off into the dark. Or after, when necessary.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *dumps more Jedi art and leaves*

Obi-Wan has misplaced his cloak again. It's far from the first time, he'll sheepishly admit, but lately it's been returned to him days later with colorful embroidery. Running his hands over the wings and saber of the Jedi knights on the centerback down to the fish in the style of Korun calligraphy and flowers in the geometric patterns common to Alderaan, he has to admit the care and friendship infused in the threads has him taking more care with it. The traditional Stewjoni decorative pond taking shape from the hems of his robe reminds him of good times and good friends.

Beyond that, the physical work of carving their home out of rock is wearing several of his trousers and tunics thin. The Order's fabrics previously were woven mostly by a mixture of AgriCorps and the quartermasters. That is still the case, but now the fibers the create it from are either the black tree bark or one of the many examples of glowing plant life. Obi-Wan last wore black on the run from Death Watch on Mandalore and on Melida/Daan before that. If not for the very distinct styles being designed by the quartermasters for practical wear on their new homeworld he might have found himself dredging up some poor memories. The embroidery helps, hence his search for his favored cloak.

There is a far from negligible chance it's simply in the hands of another embroiderer. Kit filled in the pond with the traditional Nautolan pattern denoting water a week earlier over the course of two days and Plo added pondweed around the sleeves that looks more like something native to Dorin than Stewjon. Even still, this is longer than usual and he would like it back soon.

Anakin's poor mood earns him few friends and little embroidery of his own. Despite that, Obi-Wan's exasperation radiates from the greater krayt curling around Anakin's neck and the empathetic imprint Mace left in the parade of droids around the sleeves drives him to distraction. Among the embroidery Obi-Wan recognizes C-3PO, last seen in the company of Senator Amidala, R2D2, and a dozen of the mouse droids Anakin used to get his hands on at the Coruscant temple.

They are far from the only ones with decorated clothes. As the carving of the temple goes on and more of their critical needs are settled more people are taking time to turn the space already created into a proper home. There are elaborately carved light fixtures with glowing crystal inside casting patterned shadows, the creche walls are painted with brightly colored pigments brought back from all over Ilaii, and more and more of them are experimenting with fashion. Obi-Wan himself has gotten ahold of a pot of the opal-crystal sands from the other side of the continent to mix into the colors that are going into his own quarters. He isn't a talented painter, but Siri and Bant have turned one of his walls into a glittering mural. He paints each of the rest of the walls a different color himself, several of the colors glowing faintly.

Wiring in power to the temple is an undertaking the engineers aren't willing to go through outside areas that truly need it. The archives, of course, are climate controled with holoterminals for searching the archives. The commissary kitchen and dining hall both have lights, as well as power for the many appliances needed to feed the Order. Both run off repurposed hyperdrive powercores in attached generator rooms while the quartermasters work out how long their supplies will last. Given that the systems are far from as intensive as a hyperspace jump they should last longer. As a result, without power wired in doors have mechanical locks where they have them at all and lights are all lamps of varying brightness depending on whether they are made from local crystal or handlights used in the field. The charging ports in the archives for datapads are very popular.

Their supplies of food brought with them is also starting to run low. AgriCorps and MediCorps have already made sure there are edible crops growing—memorably the mushroom and vine gardens hanging from the edges of openings in their caves. Once they are ready to start harvests everyone will be more comfortable. Until then they continue to stretch their rations with scavenging and hunting. Perhaps some nuna birds can be imported and kept inside the temple when they finally leave Ilaii. It's one of those hopes that keeps many of them going, though the soul healers have expressed concern it is too close to denial. He understands their reasoning, but the Order won't—can't—isolate themselves from the galaxy forever.

Plo has already brought up resuming search with support from Shaak. Yoda pushes for caution, but the way his ears lift at the talk of younglings tells a different story. Most the rest of the council is willing so long as it remains away from the dangerous politics of the war. That means the outer rim and wild space.

Logistics aren't too difficult. For all that ExploraCorps knows better than to suggest their starmaps are complete, they are much better than the ones in Republic records. A hyperdrive can last a year before needing a new fuel cell at peak efficiency. It would be easy enough to swing around the edge of wild space to mix up their entry points. Not to mention without the beacons to track their flight records back, tracing hyperspace reports for trips taken off the hyperlanes is a difficult, time-intensive job. ExploraCorps undoubtedly knows a few tricks for muddying the waters further. Plo, as head of search and the current councilor taking lead with ExploraCorps is quick to volunteer his time to work out the details. Historically most of their younglings have come from Republic worlds and they've had few resources to look further abroad. Now that their circumstances are reversed the results of search are up in the air.


	7. Chapter 7

Beyond the reaches of the Republic there had always been rumors about Jedi. They were strange and mysterious and fascinating—especially on the outer rim where they weren't often found. Stories of sorcery and sword fighting aside, there are very few people who recognize a Jedi outside the context of expecting one to be present and even less when they don't wear their lightsaber openly. The shadows and CorSec both took great advantage of that once upon a time and now Search will do the same. ExploraCorps—and by extension the temple archives—have starmaps with far more systems listed than the ones available elsewhere. It's easy to see that there are stars in unknown space—in particular the dense system not far from Ila that they suspect may be inhabited by a space-going people—but ExploraCorps has not only calculated the locations of these systems theoretically, they have also been farther into what is considered uncharted space than they've ever bothered to inform the Senate. It is one of several matters internal to the Order that was determined to be unnecessary for the Senate to know. The colonies and the expansion region were more than enough for the Senate's attention and ExploraCorps wasn't setting out new beacons to give away their mapping.

This allowed them to chart routes through unknown space to enter the outer rim in a dozen different locations to obscure their location. Plo's own trip would have him catching the end of the Braxant Run where is ends in wild space and swinging wide through the outer rim on the Veragi Trade Route. With the amount of distance to cover and the lack of Republic birth records to guide them they are sending out twice the number of ships. All Jedi leaving on Search were to be home or in contact explaining where they were in two months.

In the outer rim Plo ends up mostly with the children of slaves, only some of whom are force sensitive. There are twelve children on his ship as he turns back toward Ila a bit earlier than planned. Fortunately none of them are young enough to require constant care, but every one of them is confused and cold even curled up together with a pile of spare blankets. The trip back to Ilaii will be a tenday and even that will have him back well before his two month deadline. With the number on younglings on his ship, however, it is best he gets back as quickly as possible. Not far into unknown space he picks up a distress signal less than a day by hyperspace from Ansion. It leads him to Esfandia, a planet without a star. The gouge dug into the ground by the crashed ship is easy to find even as small as it is. The hydrogen-methane atmosphere means there are no inhabitants on the planet. The single holonet relay station in wild space is not far away but it's manned exclusively by droids. With the younglings tucked away and napping in a bunk room he attached his anti-tox mask to an air tank which he settles on his back and heads to the small airlock on his shuttle.

The ship is a tiny single person fighter—a model with a hyperdrive that Plo isn't familiar with, but it looks Republic make. The cockpit is intact and inside he can see a set of armor that is familiar to him even if he has never before seen it in person. None of the Jedi have kept abreast of the situation unfolding between the Republic and the Confederacy, but this is still well past where any fighting would take place. There is no reason for a clone trooper to be here. The trooper isn't wearing his helmet and doesn't seem to have been when he crashed by the drying blood on the left side of his face. Plo returns to his ship to find a human-fit mask and air tank. The tank he worries he may not have, but a filter mask for an adult human is found among the emergency supplies. It isn't ideal, but it will help long enough to get the man into his ship where the hostile atmosphere won't be a problem. Plo is less careful peeling open the fighter than he should be, but he gets the mask on quickly and floats both the man and the helmet wedged behind the seat onto his own ship.

The lacerations simply bled heavily as head wounds tend to do, Plo determines. Once cleaned up it needs only a bacta patch even if there's likely to be scarring. More concerning, Plo diagnoses a severe concussion and even mental prodding with the force doesn't wake up his patient. There is little more he can do, however. He leave the clone in his own bunk room and heads back to the cockpit to put them back in hyperspace. It's two days to Ilaii before a more qualified and better equipped healer can look at the man and hopefully he'll have woken up by then. He starts the jump and settles into the pilot's seat to take a nap before the younglings wake up.

In the end his guest does not wake up before they make orbit. The ExploraCorps member on the radio promises to have a couple extra healers on hand when he lands to ensure the old med droid on the ship did a good enough job removing slave chips from the younglings old enough to have them and to take the trooper to their halls of healing. As the healers float him away on a stretcher he wrestles out a promise to be kept informed of the man's status.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For reference I am using the calendar for sw where each month is made of seven weeks that are five days long


	8. Chapter 8

It takes another week for Plo to be informed that the trooper he brought back has woken up. The report from the healers suggested that beside the bleeding wound on the left side of his face, the trooper also hit his head on the other side resulting in some nasty bruising and damage to what appeared to be some sort of biochip that they removed. Despite that there didn't seem to be any lasting damage beyond the scars running over the trooper's cheek into his hairline. Only about half of those out on search have returned already and the crechemasters are latching onto anyone who seems like they might like children. Plo himself has been enjoying time with the younglings when not in discussions with the council about how best to care for the non-force sensitive children now in their care as well as the trooper he brought back. When the comm comes from the halls of healing he excuses himself from the creche—giving and receiving many hugs as he slowly extricates himself—to go talk to their guest.

"Hello," he greets the wide-eyed trooper in a small isolation room with walls painted in dark blue and glowing purple. "I am Jedi Master Plo Koon. May I know your name?"

"Mayday, sir."

Plo watches Mayday curiously. He's heard the Kaminoans did quite a bit of genetic engineering even with Jango Fett's genome being specifically chosen as ideal, but he's still of the impression that humans and near-humans have to blink more often than this. Perhaps they have been engineered to have inner eye-lids?

"A pleasure to meet you, Mayday. Can you tell me where you were going when you crashed?"

"No, sir." Mayday squirms in the bed. "I'm not very good at astronavigation."

"I see." Plo smiles behind his anti-tox mask. "Well, perhaps you know where your brethren may be deployed?"

"I— You haven't heard?"

"The holonet does not reach this far, I'm afraid. We have no news of how things are progressing in the Republic."

"The Kaminii said that the Republic couldn't have us because we were made for the Jedi," Mayday says. "Since the Jedi didn't come for us, Kote said we'd go find the Jedi instead."

Plo sits back in his seat and hums while he considers that. It really is something for the council to discuss, possibly with input from the Service Corps. The army commissioned by Sifo-Dyas numbers in the hundreds of thousands—if they take them in it will double their numbers. Feeding and housing them all would be no small task. The temple was still far from finished with only their own numbers to account for.

"I will have to speak about that with the council. In the meantime I can take you to the quartermasters."

Mayday has only a few lingering bruises at this point, so the healers wave them off after ensuring they get his name into their records. By the time they make it to the quartermasters store rooms the record in their system has already been updated and Quartermaster Zai Juri-La is waiting for them. Plo gets the impression Mayday has never seen a Nikto before. Possibly he has seen no one who is not either Kaminoan or Human passing. Master Juri-La grabs Mayday by the non-bandaged wrist and pulls him over to the spare clothes where he is fitted with three sets of plain work clothes in the black the order is coming to favor and a matching travel cloak. None of it is decorated yet, but Plo is sure Mayday will find his clothes just as colorful as the temple murals. He is also allotted a datapad, access to the educational modules in the archives, and a bunk in a set of rooms near Plo's that emptied out once the creche was complete. It's still decorated for the children, she informs them.

"If you have any further requests please submit them through the system," Master Juri-La says. "I'm sure Master Koon is willing to help if you are unsure how to submit them or what types of requests can be filled at this time."

"Thank you, sir." Mayday tries to shuffle the bundle in his arms to salute before bowing awkwardly instead.

She waves them off, already wandering away back to her inventorying. They head back into the halls with Plo leading the way. It takes about half an hour to walk from the store rooms to where Plo's rooms are usually, but in this case the walk takes nearly an hour and a half while Mayday stops to ogle various artworks that decorate the halls. Stopping to watch decorative sconces being carved with the force turns into a ten minute demonstration of how the crystals are inserted while discussing the fictionalized history that inspired many of the scenes depicted in them. A glittering mosaic has Mayday walking circles around it trying to see every angle and once Plo assures him that the tapestries can be touched several are carefully petted. Before the exile it was exceedingly rare even any of their outspoken supporters bothered to ask questions about the Jedi that didn't pertain to their work. Once they make it to the rooms he's been assigned Mayday puts his clothes and datapad on a low table and spends fifteen minutes inspecting the rooms and admiring the brightly colored walls with painted animals.

"These are your rooms now, so you may, of course, redecorate as you see fit within reason. If you would like to trade any of your furniture for more adult-sized versions we can put in a request and the quartermasters will send a droid." Mayday is watching him without blinking again. "My own rooms are just across the hall, but they have been altered for my preferred atmosphere. If you need assistance or you would like to speak to me you can knock on the door or send a message through the temple network on your datapad. Now, latemeal should be in about an hour. Please take this time to settle in and I will be back soon to show you the way."

"Yes, sir."

Now that his hands are free, Mayday salutes him. Plo pats his shoulder on the way out.


	9. Chapter 9

Mace has no idea why, but Fett is spending his time near Kril'Dor where the mid rim ran up against unknown space. There's usually work in the area for a bounty hunter with the tibanna processing. At the same time the frequent calls from Boba suggest not only that Fett isn't taking many jobs, but also that most of the Mandalorians who had a hand in training the clone troopers are with them. Whatever Kit talks about with Boba, he doesn't share. Nonetheless he gets every impression Boba greatly enjoys being a primary source of information for the Jedi Order. Given that the Republic is no longer their business he doesn't push for details. Until Plo briefly comms him about the trooper in their temple. Mace would have thought Boba would find the Kaminoans refusing to give the Senate their cloned army amusing enough to share. As soon as the next call comes in he asks.

"One of our masters found a clone trooper crashed in wild space and brought him back," he says. "Apparently they're looking for us because the Kaminoans refused to give them to the Senate. Did you know about that?"

"That's why they left? I knew the Kaminii said the Senate couldn't have them, but I guess anything is better than the long necks so Kote said they'd look for you."

"Is that so?"

"Tipoca City is so boring," Boba complains. Then he mutters, "Sometimes they get decommissioned. If they didn't leave the long necks might have decommissioned all of them."

Obi-Wan's report was very clear that the Kaminoans see the men as product rather than people. It's with dread that he realizes that decommissioning is a euphemism for murder. It will stretch their resources for awhile to house them, but these men already have possible slave chips in their heads and the threat of death from war and this _decommissioning_ and if one of their own is truly responsible for their existence the Jedi should do their due diligence in ensuring their safety. Although this does give him questions regarding Fett's role in the whole business. The bounty hunter was working for the Separatists, yet clearly had no loyalty to them. Most surprisingly, Fett answered directly to Count Dooku who he has most reason to hate out of all Jedi current and former.

"Your father must not be working for the Separatists anymore if you spend so much time this far out."

"He said something about magic mind tricks." Boba shrugs carelessly, but his eyes are as sharp as Fett's. "And that they aren't paying him enough for that."

"I see. Well, if you ever happen to come see us perhaps he can pay a visit to our healers so they might look into that."

The subject changes to lighter matters but Mace is sure Boba hasn't forgotten. Once the call ends Mace sends out messages to his fellow councilors. For all they've avoided news of the galaxy at large, this is something they will have to discuss. Even if Plo can't be pried away from his new foundling, trooper Mayday can give them valuable insight into what to expect as they collect his brethren. Both Mayday and Boba now have mentioned a trooper named Kote who is high enough in command to be considered in charge of their ranks. Presumably he will notice their ships falling out of contact if they send people out to rendezvous with each individual ship. That is getting ahead of himself, though. First the council needs to decide how best to do this.

It isn't until latemeal that the council in its entirety can escape their duties for an unscheduled meeting and they hold the meeting in the commissary so they can eat at the same time. Plo does bring Mayday, calmly but insistently herding him to their table. The trooper is looking much better. A week has cleared up the bruising and his cloak has gained an impressive amount of embroidery for how long he's been with them—Plo's anti-tox mask on the center back and stars and ships slowly taking shape along the rest. One planet done in exacting detail has the wings and saber of the Jedi knights circling it. The tiny chips of glowing crystal sewed in mark the planet as Ilaii.

"I learned something interesting from a friend today."

"I'm still not translating."

"I don't need you to." Mace took a drink of the day's tea-like experiment. Sweet. "Apparently Fett's agreement to work with Count Dooku had something to do with "magic tricks." Given Dooku's choices since leaving the Order...."

"Qui-Gon didn't like to acknowledge the similarities where they existed, but the two of them were very similar," Obi-Wan says. "I wouldn't be surprised to hear Dooku was also...liberal with mind tricks."

Yoda's ears droop. "Correct, I fear you are."

"We are already re-examining our internal policies," Adi says. "We will simply do a more thorough review of practices we've taken for granted."

It's not particularly reassuring, but there's nothing to be done about the past. Nothing Mace says will reassure the grandmaster. Reforming a Sith is a dangerous path and one that's succeeded perhaps three times as recorded in their archives—and every time required extreme action of the type Mace can't condone. Not sundering a portion of Dooku's soul or stripping him of his identity. Maybe that's ignorance or inexperience—no matter how close he comes to the dark, Mace has never faced a Sith—but the very few great victories cannot justify the tactics. Accounts of those near to the Prodigal Knight suggest the Sith Emperor dominated his mind and even as he led forces against the Republic he fought the hold of darkness in small ways and no one fully knows what happened to Qel-Droma while infiltrating the Krath cult. Investigation suggests that Dooku was fallen when he left the Order and chose the Sith of his own will. Those who disdain the light cannot be reconciled to it.

"The men, though—" Mace turns to Mayday. "—do you know how we could best contact them?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, we turn our attention to people who aren't Jedi
> 
> rip

The Republic exiling the Jedi isn't in the plans. There are no contingencies for it in the plans either, a fact Sidious is likely taking out on his servants. As his apprentice, Dooku is punished with the expectation that he should keep Grievous and Ventress on a leash until the clone army could be brought into line. That doesn't seem likely to happen—given the chance the clones decide to go looking for the Jedi they are told they were made for rather than joining the Republic, and even knowing more or less where they are hasn't helped any. Simply put, the Republic possesses no means to force the clones to do their bidding and no incentive to encourage them either. Dooku may keep this fact locked tightly behind his shields, but the forcible schism between the Order and the Senate achieves his own goals far more neatly than Sidious'. In fact, with no war overtaking the Republic there is no Emergency Powers Act and only a month left before Sidious is out of the chancellor's office for good. The Senate is arranged well enough that his successor will be a puppet, but even that is unlikely to last beyond Grievous' inevitably lashing out. It will not be long before his web of spies and agents is rendered impotent in the face of the disaster he arranged.

All told the situation would be ideal for his own plans if not for the fact that he is as good as chancellor of the Confederacy.

"You've done what?" Dooku takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly before he force chokes the idiot in his office.

"We're building our own Jedi Order," said idiot says, forging ahead in his stupidity. "The birthing centers are still doing midichlorian tests, so all children with a high enough count are being gathered in a nursery on Serenno."

"I am running a planetary government and the Confederate Senate. I do not have time to teach a hundred children on top of the apprentice I already have."

"We have hired some nursery workers; it should be several years before they need direct teaching." Dooku stares down his nose judgmentally, but unfortunately it has no effect on the imbecile. Some people are just too stupid to know better. "They are more than capable of looking after a few children."

"I don't have time for this."

"As I've said," the idiot sighs, like he is the one being unreasonable, "you don't have to do anything. The Senate has already signed off on it. By the time the children are old enough for classes, the Senate will have had more than enough time to convince the Jedi to join the Confederacy."

"Just get out of my office."

With an offended huff Dooku is once again alone in his office and reconsidering his stance. This does not suit his plans in the slightest. At the very least he has made it clear this will not be his problem to deal with and he won't suffer the fallout. He drops the folder into a drawer and puts it out of his mind. Asajj is getting bored and starting to ask questions—that is a far more immediate concern.

Sidious feels his gentle smile straining at the edges as he endorses his chosen puppet for the chancellery. It's unfortunate that this has become necessary, but it's reached the point where the Emergency Powers Act wouldn't pass in time to keep him in office even if the Senate could be convinced to discuss it. Instead he is forced to keep up the charade knowing _his queen_ means to retire him from politics, a decision he can't argue against without looking unreasonable. Queen Jamillia is so insistent that his service to the Republic has earned him rest in the latter years of his life. While the initial assassination of Amidala was intended to fail, he considers a more successful attempt. Without her Jedi protectors it would be easy enough.

Nine hundred years of planning to end the Jedi once and for all and build a new empire out of the ashes and it falls apart now. Perhaps he campaigned somewhat harder and more emphatically against the Jedi in the shadows than the plan called for, but that should not have reduced their favor so dramatically already that the exile order passed through the Senate with too much support for him to block.

Beyond those issues he isn't blind to the increasing disdain from Tyrannus as the situation drags out. The uppity brat thinks that just because Sidious will soon be leading the Republic from the shadows instead of openly that his power will be less. Dealing with his own forces is punishment enough for his temporary apprentice. For now, at least, until the time comes that Sidious boils his eyes right out of his head with Sith lightning. He also fantasizes about wrapping his hands around Kenobi's throat and choking the life out of him for having sent Skywalker away early. Five months now—half a year—since the order passed and there has been nothing. Skywalker should have reached out by now, to Amidala if not him, but there's nothing but a message to corrupted to be understood that could have originated from anywhere in half the galaxy.

With a shallow bow, Sidious finishes his speech and cedes the floor to Orn Free Taa. The Twi'lek will serve his purposes well enough—though he enjoys the luxuries of representing Ryloth in the Senate, he is loath to do the work of rulership himself and an indecisive coward beside.

For the moment the number of planets leaving for the Confederacy of Independent Systems is low enough to be manageable. No more core, inner rim, or mid rim worlds have left for the Confederacy and almost none of the neutral systems were Republic to start with. The colonies, expansion region, and outer rim worlds matter far less, but the fewer votes the harder it is for him to sway the mob in his favor.


	11. Chapter 11

Ensuring sufficient food production is their first priority now, with carving out more of the temple a close second. Beyond that they need to find the troopers and bring them back to the temple—they won't be in Republic or Confederacy space, but that is far from covering the whole galaxy and they would prefer to avoid being waylaid—which will not be quickly achieved. Anakin recently stumbled upon more hotsprings, far more extensive than the last and most of them cool enough to swim in. It isn't quite the Room of a Thousand Fountains, but AgriCorps is convinced they can make it into a reasonable replica given the opportunity. Along with their new crystal-lined meditation rooms and the cave with acoustics so impossibly perfect for a naturally occurring room they are mostly prepared to start building. ExploraCorps reports on progress for planning their new expansions are good to start carving things out.

After a more formal reconfiguration of the high council and their duties Plo has very enthusiastically taken on the role of Master of Search and, as such, will be taking charge of collecting the troopers as well as children who are given over to the Order. Even with the threat of being Jedi generals hanging over their heads Yaddle has chosen to retire from the council, passing her seat and the now-included title of Master of the Creche to Shaak. Obi-Wan himself now finds himself representing EduCorps, while Depa represents MediCorps, Kit ExploraCorps, and Adi AgriCorps. Ki-Adi Mundi has taken to spending enough time in the archives that Master Nu co-opted him as their representative, his wives having chosen to join their husband in exile with their daughters and spending their own time in the creche.

Anakin has been assigned meditation sessions with a soul healer after weeks more of intensive sulking with no effort made to come to a decision. The first session hasn't helped, but hopefully time will make the difference. He has small bits of embroidery from the other ExploraCorps cartographers—little glowing mushrooms and crystals mostly—but most of his cloak is a plain expanse of cloth unlike Obi-Wan's which's fabric can barely be seen anymore.

Search leaves Ilaii again only a week after they all return. Plo takes Mayday along with him and heads out toward Takodana to meet up with the troopers who circled around that direction from Kamino. The rest of the council sees them off again.

Obi-Wan has classes to teach about the galaxy's many and varied cultures. Although this knowledge may not be useful again within his lifetime reminding themselves that there are many perspectives is still worth doing. Not to mention, while traditional practical expressions of birth culture will become difficult to arrange the creche is already discussing possibilities. At least Shaak announces progress on that front as acceptable.

Most strikingly, after two tendays of translating for Mayday Obi-Wan has finally realized the pidgin dialect slowly being formed out of the many languages spoken in the Order—when they speak out loud at all. Without trips out of the temple to enforce Galactic Basic as the primary means of communication the mishmash of vocabulary and grammar is slowly becoming its own beast. Among the younglings it is happening fastest, but on some occasions Obi-Wan finds himself speaking Ryll and Bothan as the words suit his needs and only noticing after the conversation is long over. Much more rarely he finds himself having to backtrack from Mando'a. After a conversation with Mayday he is more likely to find other words when he says something in a language almost none in the Order speak. Anakin spoke Basic, Huttese, and Bocce; but he'd done poorly learning more languages once coming to the temple and at the time it hadn't mattered enough at the time for Obi-Wan to push him in something he didn't care for.

Obi-Wan would have to speak to Anakin and see how well he was understanding the people around him. Having any conversation with his padawan these days was difficult. When not complaining about not being allowed to leave Ilaii Anakin was complaining about not being knighted—despite still being half a decade younger than average for humans reaching their trials and displaying none of the mastery of self that a knight is expected to have started gaining. Hopefully another month of sessions with the soul healers would help Anakin start opening up. In the meantime he would continue to talk around the subject of their exile until Anakin is ready to make a choice.

They don't actually see each other very often anymore. Anakin stayed in the padawan dorms even once enough quarters were built for Obi-Wan to feel comfortable claiming rooms for himself and the council often uses mealtimes as a chance for casual meetings. With Anakin spending him days with either school work—none of his classes taught by Obi-Wan—or on whatever work ExploraCorps has deemed safe for him to do.

Depa is considering taking a padawan. She hasn't chosen yet, but she was currently spending quite a bit of her free time checking on the initiates. Mace knows something about how that is going—he smiles slightly whenever it comes up—and isn't saying. No doubt the way padawans are chosen will change now that there is so little delineation between the knights and the Service Corps, still he considers it a sign that life will carry on for them. For once he is looking forward to a change in everything he knows. The force is light and reassuring, and the future ahead is bright.

Obi-Wan smiles at the younglings there to learn about Alderaan and starts telling them about the seasonal flower festivals.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> many more bunnies have been spawned and I am trying to work on several of them with varying success,,,,, >.>

Waiting for news is usually intolerable, but in this case there was too much to do to pay much attention to the lack of communication from Search. Some of their newly planted gardens were producing from the plants with shorter growth cycles giving them the beginning of a store of canned foods from the excess. At the same time ExploraCorps is recommending another temple site be chosen as their current one could only grow so much more. The natural cave systems were a boon in the process, but secondary locations at least for AgriCorps would be ideal. Much of their crops need more light than even the nearby open caves could provide. Even more than that, the obligate carnivores among the Order are currently reliant on hunting parties that track the local megafauna for their own food. The local fish may be edible to them, but MediCorps hasn't yet cleared them for consumption.

Sending someone out to trade for nuna birds sounds increasingly like a good idea.

Although enough living quarters are complete for no one to be sleeping on the ships, there are still many people who are sharing space. The temporary dormitory style areas are mostly empty and available. While they could carve out more in a similar style very quickly, there's the likely possibility that the troopers won't want to share rooms between a dozen or more. On top of that there is simply no way to have that much furniture prepared when large portions of the temple are furnished only with what was brought with them to Ilaii. Obi-Wan estimated Tipoca City housed perhaps five hundred thousand of the cloned soldiers and supplying them all with blankets and sleep mats would have to come first once the men arrived.

It doesn't take long for AgriCorps to announce their intentions to send teams to Ilaii's other biomes both to set up growhouses and to see what other edible resources are available and plenteous enough for them to use. With any luck they will overfill their stores and have extra for trade goods once they settle well enough to venture back into the galaxy on a larger scale. Gloamwood takes up near a quarter of the continent they live on and though the grasses of the Star Fields are likely inedible the grasslands are home to many species of animals large and small. Then, of course, there are the fish living off the coast. The water is sulfurous from the volcano—named F-CK by ExploraCorps; as a part of their mapping grid supposedly, but the local birds with a penchant for profanity that live on the lower slopes of the volcanic glass suggest a far more interesting story—which is why the MediCorps researchers still have yet to pass judgement on the fish that live there.

Very few of these various logistical problems are actually for Kit to deal with, even if his position on the high council means he has to be aware of them. His concerns lead more toward whether a safe spot for further construction has been chosen and how much Skywalker has whined any given day. The complaining, at least, is less constant now.

Kit is the one who answers when Boba calls. He has some unplanned-for downtime between meetings and excavations and it seems Fett has wandered far enough into unknown space for them to talk with only a few minutes delay. Without holonet beacons to transmit the signal they must be halfway to Ila from Kril'Dor.

"Boba! What a pleasant surprise."

"Su cuyi, Kit."

"You're getting closer. You wouldn't have talked your father into a visit yet, have you?"

"Nayc." Boba pouts. "I will! Wanna see the glowing flowers."

Kit fights back a smile—it's an expression he picked up from a childhood around humans and his sharp Nautolan teeth turn it into an undeniable threat display if he isn't careful. While he doubts Boba would mind, it's a habit to police his non-verbal cues and even his good friends start looking nervous when his smile gets wide.

"I'm sure you'll wear him down eventually. Now, tell me about your lessons. Has your father finally started teaching you astronavigation?"

After that Boba is plenty animated and talks enough for both of them, convenient with the ten minute delay between them. Midmeal will be rushed, but the conversation carries on through most of his mid-day break until Boba is called away by his father for their own meal. The trip out into unknown space is apparently part of his astronavigation lessons and he's also learning old Mandalorian history. Kit promises to forward a few sources from the archives as they say their farewells. He sends a request to the archives for copies of texts about Tarre Vizsla and the Prodigal Knight and Mandalore the Preserver. They aren't exactly child appropriate by most measures, but Boba is a Mandalorian child. It should be fine.

Kit eats midmeal in a few minutes and only barely makes it to his next meeting on time.

His role at ExploraCorps meetings is no more than taking minutes and signing off at the end. The four and a half months of helping them has made him a somewhat skilled novice, but the Corps council far outclasses him and likely always will. Anytime he thinks he is catching up they start talking about adits and dips. They have great practical knowledge of things he will never fully understand, his one contribution is to simplify the explanation as best he understands it for his fellow councilors. From the maps and gesturing he's fairly certain a nearby warren of caves has been identified that is ideal for converting into expansive living quarters. Doors and other privacy barriers will take a backseat to smoothing out the edges, but they should have plenty of space including common areas and another commissary—what with the current one being centrally located to the already built areas. As with most of the meetings, Kit signs the proposal at the end and sends it off to the archives.

Master Nu has already forwarded several files to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Su cuyi = Still alive; a shortened version of su cuy'gar "You're still alive" which is a common Mandalorian greeting  
> Nayc = No
> 
> yes that volcano off the coast was named F-CK all along, that's why exploracorps wouldn't tell the council its name


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may have blocked myself into action scenes for my other fics and buried myself under new AUs, but I can still manage to write new chapters

The facility Obi-Wan landed at is one of several on Kamino according to the men Search has found, meaning they may have vastly underestimated the number of men they will be housing. While Tipoca City housed around five hundred thousand of the clones, it was one of ten separate locations on Kamino being used for this contract. Of course, they were also born in waves—meaning that while there are many of them who are developmentally adults or very close to it, there is also a large number of children. Too many to fit in the creche even if they should be comfortable leaving their children there. Their ships can be used as shelter while the temple is expanded, but it's unlikely they'll have rations to spare after spending a great deal of time searching the galaxy for Jedi. Their built up stores will not last them long if they can't increase production.

"We need to divert more resources to AgriCorps to meet this demand," Adi says at the next council meeting. "The bunk rooms may be a tight fit, but we can share space where possible. We can't share food the same way."

"What are they requesting?" Mace asks her.

"Immediate clearance to set up outposts across Ilaii, primarily. Even with our population centered here at the temple they should be able to feed everyone without straining the environment with access to the entire planet's resources."

"Will MediCorps need anything to check the composition?"

Depa shakes her head. "Nothing they've requested. I believe leadership of both corps have already discussed the matter as well."

"Does anyone have further concerns?" Mace looks around the table at all of them. Yoda's ears twitch in his direction, but he doesn't speak up. "Then inform the corps that they have authorization to do as they see fit on this matter for the foreseeable future. What else are they asking for?"

"I confess, I'm not entirely sure. They are talking about water gardens of some variety, but the conversation is beyond me."

Obi-Wan can believe that. In the course of his missions across the galaxy he's seen what seems like a hundred different types of water garden—some of which are no more than screens sitting on a body of water collecting algae and the like. Without knowing more about what they're planning he couldn't begin to guess what they might need to do it. Adi's baffled acceptance filters out through the force.

"Well, so long as the quartermasters are willing and able to supply them, they'll have whatever they need for that as well."

There's little else to discuss for the moment. Anyone with free time is requested to make blankets if they can, so that even if they must sleep on the ground the men will be warm. Likewise there is an uptick in the creation of pillows and various articles of clothing. For now, at least, the quartermasters are swimming in the excess, but that will change once the ships start arriving. Already the first are on the way.

Unsurprisingly it's Plo who made first contact—immediately adopting the commander on board before latching on to the rest of the bridge crew. By the time they make orbit he'll be calling everyone on that ship his foundlings. No matter how stern he looks, Plo radiates care so strongly even a force null can feel it. Each ship hosts two full battalions—not all of them fully grown—and a further half a battalion's worth of cadets. The commander in charge—Wolffe, as he introduced himself once Plo made it clear he didn't consider identification numbers the same as names—is a high ranking enough officer to have four such ships under his immediate command. That's around ten thousand provided they don't pick up more ships on the way back to Ilaii. Even if Plo found them in the area around Jedha only a couple spans over that's no guarantee. Not only is their search very thorough, Plo always ends up in the right place to adopt more children.

A rush of activity precedes their arrival. The quartermasters have taken to storing blankets in a small room in the warren of unfinished spaces that is to be used as a dormitory and ExploraCorps brought a second commissary onto the temple systems in the same area. The temple does not yet have a unified power grid—may never have one with the way they are carving it out of the caves instead of building it from the bottom up—but more of their crystal based lights have been mounted so at the very least there will always be some light to see by. The first delivery of food from AgriCorps' new outposts comes only a day before the ships make orbit.

Venator-class destroyers, as they're called, are too big to land most places on Ilaii and by the time all the clones arrive they'll have too many to keep anyway. The first four land on the southern ice floes where they are met by ExploraCorps with half of AgriCorps' fleet of barges. Including what little on the ships the men want to bring they can transport about a ship's worth of them at a time. It isn't much—spare armor, more weapons than they can see a need for, and a few other odds and ends—but it goes on the barges anyway. Plo chooses to stay and fly his own ship back with the last group and Wolffe decides to stay with him. Obi-Wan won't be surprised to find Wolffe and his bridge crew moving into the emptied rooms across from Plo's once they get to the temple.

It takes a couple rotations to get them all settled into the dormitories at the temple. Fortunately they don't mind living on top of each other—even less with the ever-growing pile of blankets they are using to build nests out of—so the ten thousand men take up only about twenty percent of the space. That leaves not nearly enough for the five million more that they need housing for. Kit eventually brings up the idea of spreading them out among the new corps outposts as well. It would buy them time to find a place to put at least a few thousand extra people.


	14. Chapter 14

It takes a few more weeks for more ships to start showing up. The four ships already sitting in the south have been stripped from the insides by most of the ExploraCorps working in shifts, leaving the durasteel and transparisteel shells on the ice until they could be broken down. With the influx of ships they are expecting they'll sit there for years. They have no way to keep up with the number of ships that will be arriving, a little more than two thousand if the numbers stay consistent. Four ships worth of components have overfilled their store rooms as it is. There won't be space to land that many ships and they can't in good conscience ask any of the men to stay on the ships so they can safely leave them in orbit. It's as much an issue as their lack of sufficient housing. Unfortunately they don't have the manpower to solve both issues.

Wolffe comes along with Mayday and Plo to one of their meal meetings and says something that gives them pause.

"We don't intend to be guests. It might not be what we were trained for, but it's our home you're talking about. We can help." Then, before they can respond, he adds— "'Sides, everyone's already climbing the walls. Need something to do."

"Ah. We have been so concerned with how to settle you on Ilaii that we forgot you would be citizens at our side."

The whole council laughs ruefully. They have been treating the situation as if they were rehoming refugees, for all that their new home is with the Jedi in the temple. Even if they were to change course and prepare space elsewhere on Ilaii cohabitating on the planet will require cooperation. For at least as long as it takes them to settle themselves they'll have to operate closely enough to be one entity. Afterward there will be time to revise a long-term arrangement.

"ExploraCorps will need extra assistance for years to come, I'm sure."

"There will be a great need for teachers with how many students EduCorps will have."

"Speaking of students—" Shaak gives Obi-Wan a meaningful look. "Have you spoken to Skywalker recently?"

"He's been waiting outside my classes, but he leaves before they end."

"The healers haven't said anything?"

"Only to wait for him to come to me." Obi-Wan shrugs. "He's a senior padawan, I'm no longer privy to every detail of his health."

"It hasn't quite been a year yet since we came to Ilaii. He'll come around."

Obi-Wan leans gratefully into her force presence. For a few minutes the conversation stops while they continue eating. The fish that live near the volcano have finally been cleared for consumption and the glowing mushrooms have proven to grow fast enough to become a staple of their diet. Hunters felled one of the enormous, antlered herbivores earlier in the week and are still in the process of stewing it into something less tough. A variety of basic health checks have the troopers on high protein diets, especially the younglings who will need extra nutrients to keep up with their accelerated growth. They noticed quickly that they easily ate twice as much as anyone else. Already there is a joint initiative among the corps to create a meal plan capable of providing what they need.

Wolffe and Mayday both eat fast, though neatly enough not to waste food. While watching them a thought occurred to him.

"You know you can leave the temple, yes? You aren't expected to stay in the dormitories."

Both of them blink at him. Plo swivels around to look at them.

"You may ask for directions if you want to find somewhere or someone specific or you may wander the temple as you please," he says as they continue to hesitate. "It is still under construction as we have not yet been here a full year and you may be asked to leave some areas, but you may come and go as you please."

"If you do leave the temple we'd ask that you take a comm with you," Kit adds. "Most of the entrances are difficult to find from the outside and the local megafauna can be very dangerous. ExploraCorps or the quartermasters should be able to provide them."

"ExploraCorps might ask you to take cartography droids with you wandering. They're still working on the planetary maps."

"Can droids get around outside?" Mayday asks curiously.

"They're drones." Kit shrugs. "They fly and also collect video and radar data, possibly other things as well. They must have some means of locating themselves on the maps that are already created, but I did not help make them."

"Can I have one?" he asks Plo.

"We'll stop by the ExploraCorps central office after this. I'm sure they'll be happy to have someone else collecting data."

Wolffe looks less interested in the prospect of mapping Gloamwood and the caves beneath it but there was an acknowledgement of the warning about the wildlife. Maybe he was interested in the very Mandalorian pastime of hunting large game or possibly just taking note of a potential danger. With all of them staying cooped up in the dormitories prepared for them Obi-Wan can't claim he knows any of them very well. Now that they will be out in the rest of the temple that may change.

"You may join some of the classes and lectures, too. Even if you've already completed your training," Obi-Wan says.

He'll have to warn EduCorps and the other instructors, but he doubts they'll mind in the slightest. It will be interesting to see what they do now that the council has told them they have the freedom to do what they want.


	15. Chapter 15

By the time the one year anniversary of the first Jedi ships arriving on Ilaii comes around there are already a hundred thousand clone troopers living with them—doubling the size of their population—and it isn't all of them yet. The original dormitory has been expanded into another warren of caves, tripling its size, but it's still not nearly enough to house as many men as are on the way even as some of the men break off to the corps outposts across the planet. Many of them have joined the various crafting groups, turning out both textile goods like blankets and clothes and converting the stripped electronics from the ships into other things like more of the cartography droids or lamps. Many of those who stick with embroidery have a talent for precision that bears out in other hobbies as well. From woodwork to droid maintenance to fish farming to painting they are quickly closing the gap for all of their material concerns. Plo has some lovely new furniture and so does the creche.

Personally Mace has found little time to spend with the men, using his talent with shatterpoints to help excavation of new areas as he is. There is another open-topped cave large enough for the plantlife to grow into. The walls are held in place by the roots of one of the largest trees he's ever seen off of Kashyyyk, the ground directly beneath it worn away until it is left to support its own weight. There are two stone pillars that look about as tall as venators stood on their noses and wide enough around it takes half an hour to walk the distance, both placed under the overhang of the cave ceiling. He isn't sure how they came to exist—presumably someone knows enough about rock formations to figure it out, beyond the obvious existence of the narrow stream running through the valley of the cave floor—but several of the more enterprising sculptors are already circling them like starving nexu. Whatever becomes of them, it will be impressive.

Despite his unfortunate lack of time spent with their new corps he's gained two shadows anyway—shadows named Ponds and Neyo. The pair is competitive in minor, passive aggressive ways that he isn't sure whether it is simply their natural inclination or if they know each other already. Neither is content to let the other have his attention for long. Both are very logistically minded, a blessing with the growing scope of their project, but he doesn't know how to tell them that he prefers the times they forget they're trying so hard to dislike each other. This moment now, watching the latest transmission he's received from Boba is one of them.

Ponds is standing just behind one shoulder and Neyo at his other as they watch the outpouring of profanity with fascination. Mace is halfway through recording his reply when Neyo leans around his shoulder and says—

"Does your buir know you've been spending time with Priest, cadet?"

Mace doesn't know that name—though Obi-Wan might, among his other general knowledge of Mandalore—but he can guess this Priest is one of the former trainers on Kamino. One Fett doesn't want his child around. He doesn't comment, mildly curious to see what comes of it when Fett no doubt sees the message while Boba watches it himself. Whoever Priest is, he's unlikely to enjoy the fallout. That may be Neyo's purpose in mentioning him, by the sense of satisfaction Mace feels from him. When he sends the message he feels a wash of vertigo as a shatterpoint centered on himself resolves. Ponds presses against his side to keep him upright and once he feels steadier he pats them both on the shoulder in thanks.

This far out from the main halls of the temple it takes several hours to walk back so the ExploraCorps expeditions have taken to heading out for as much as a tenday at a time. His fellow councilors can still contact him should anything go so wrong as to need his immediate attention, but not being responsible for the entirety of the temple for a few days does wonders for his stress levels. As much as he misses the halls of the temple where he spent his childhood he never would have been able to do such a thing there without stepping down as Master of the Order. Mace usually enjoys his duties, tiring as they are.

There are speederbikes aplenty between what the Order brought with them and what the troopers have in their own stock, but Gloamwood isn't ideal for using them—not above ground, and not beneath it in the caves—at the same time the slower vehicles are too big to fit through the narrower tunnels where construction has yet to widen them into the larger architecture of the temple. Part of Mayday's growing swarm of modified cartography droids accompanies them, dipping into small gaps and crevasses as they pass them in search of areas worth further investigation. One of the droids beeps excitedly from the other side of a narrow tunnel tucked behind a massive root that he doubts he can fit through. Wayfinder Haiso floats his aquatic hoversled closer.

"There is a silicon deposit, speculative," the electronic monotone of Wayfinder Haiso's translator says. "I mark it on the resource map."

He's poking the datapads mounted to the back of his hoversled with his tentacles, half his eyestalks swiveled backward to look at them while the other three lean forward like he can see through the stone if he tries a bit harder. His front three tentacles are dangling over the durarubber edge of his pool. Mace has heard Iyra tend to be smug, but the wayfinder has never seemed such to him. Maybe that was a consequence of the translator or perhaps having to do with being raised away from the Iyra caste system.

A constellation of small shatterpoints decorates the wall leading toward one high up and further from the root that looks like it would bring down half the wall. Mace blinks away the extra information. Tucked behind one of the columns tents are starting to go up as the light shifts from daylight to the dimmer glow of bioluminescence. A layer of fog begins to settle inside the cave. He wanders over, straightening poles for a tent half-up and half smothering the corps members trying to put it up. They place the weights to keep it in place quickly once all the braces are in place although the transparisteel water tank they place inside will do most of the work stopping it from being dragged away. The tank is two and a half meters in each direction, pulled along on a hoversled during the day. Wayfinder Haiso's expertise is undeniable, but managing his sleeping arrangements keeps them out of the trickier tunnels during their expedition—to say nothing of his travel arrangements for his own body. It might make more sense for the Iyra to work with the underwater teams instead. Despite that his specialty is in minerals and mining.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just don't think the octopus-slug people can speak human languages, that's all. They have _their own_ language that there is no information about, so I have decided they have indicators for when information is uncertain. Haiso's translator adds this information as tags at the end of sentences, kind of like how HK-47 talks by saying how he's saying something. It doesn't have a protocol droid AI built in so the translations are a bit choppy and miss some nuance.


End file.
